City officials not ready to give up on keeping Warriors in Oakland

A sketch of the proposed Coliseum City project by JRDV Urban International, the project managers.

The City of Oakland has been through this before—the owner of a local professional sports franchise announces they’re moving the team out of town, leaving the Coliseum for a state-of-the-art facility somewhere else.

In 2006, it was the Oakland A’s baseball team. The A’s owner, Lew Wolf, wanted to build a stadium in Fremont, and held a press conference along with Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig announcing the team would build a new stadium on 143 acres by the year 2010. But that project was abandoned in 2009, and later efforts to move to San Jose have also stalled. Major League Baseball officials have yet to give the OK for the team to leave. Six years later, they’re still here.

Now it’s the Golden State Warriors who want to exit the Coliseum for fresh digs in San Francisco. On May 22, the Warriors’ owner, Joe Lacob, announced that after 41 years, the Warriors would be crossing back over the bay to their original home city, and a new $500 million palace to be built on Piers 30 and 32. The plan is for the new arena to open before the 2017-2018 season.

Until that actually happens, though—with all the related red tape, financing and bureaucratic maneuvering—Fred Blackwell, Oakland’s Assistant City Administrator, won’t count out the chance that the Warriors will remain in the East Bay.

“Our experience tells us a press conference doesn’t necessarily lead to a new facility,” Blackwell said. “We’ll continue to pursue the Warriors until there’s actually a facility at Pier 30 and 32.”